{"id":2219149,"date":"2024-04-12T07:02:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T11:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fisa-reform-failed-because-the-whole-point-of-section-702-is-to-spy-on-americans\/"},"modified":"2024-04-12T07:07:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T11:07:48","slug":"fisa-reform-failed-because-the-whole-point-of-section-702-is-to-spy-on-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fisa-reform-failed-because-the-whole-point-of-section-702-is-to-spy-on-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"The lack of FISA reform stemmed from the fundamental purpose of Section 702: surveilling American citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffisa-reform-failed-because-the-whole-point-of-section-702-is-to-spy-on-americans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2219149&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article\u2063 discusses the legislative \u2062efforts\u200d to reform Section 702\u2062 of the\u200b Foreign \u2063Intelligence Surveillance\u200d Act, highlighting concerns over warrantless \u200dsurveillance of \u200bAmericans.\u2062 The intelligence community\u200c opposes stricter oversight, favoring the status quo.\u200d The piece underscores the\u2064 implications of government overreach and the struggle for meaningful\u200c reforms in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-supreme-court-shuts-down-attempt-to-surveil-citizens-using-aircraft-and-zoom-lenses\/\" title=\"State Supreme Court Blocks Aerial and Zoom Lens Surveillance of Citizens\">safeguarding privacy rights<\/a>. The\u200b article delves\u200c into the legislative endeavors\u2063 to amend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, shedding light on worries regarding the unchecked \u2063surveillance of American citizens. It\u2062 emphasizes the resistance from the intelligence community\u2062 towards enhanced scrutiny, preferring the existing framework. The narrative underscores the risks of governmental intrusions \u200cand \u2062the challenges\u2064 in enacting substantial changes to protect privacy\u200d rights.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>A group of 19 Republican lawmakers on Wednesday joined with Democrats to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/4588493-fisa-702-plan-b\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">block a bill<\/a> that would have reauthorized the federal government\u2019s spying authority with a few minor tweaks. At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners but is also routinely used to spy on American citizens.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands now, the law, which is set to expire April 19, allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign nationals based overseas, but it also lets the FBI comb through the massive amounts of data the intelligence community collects and gather information about American citizens. These are known as \u201cbackdoor searches,\u201d and an unlikely coalition of conservative Republicans and left-wing Democrats want to change how these searches are conducted.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1293475347\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-646abb9267e46990feae5cff309e2bca fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-646abb9267e46990feae5cff309e2bca\"><\/div>\n<p>Specifically, they want to require that the FBI obtain a warrant before searching Section 702 data for information about Americans \u2014 a reasonable reform. The intelligence community, and the members of the House Intelligence Committee over whom they have influence, oppose this.<\/p>\n<p>Why? The most straightforward answer is that the <em>main purpose<\/em> of the intelligence community\u2019s surveillance programs isn\u2019t to spy on terrorists or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-twitter-files-shows-company-helped-the-military-battle-foreign-adversaries-trying-to-hurt-u-s\/\" title=\"New \u2018Twitter Files\u2019 Shows Company Helped The Military Battle Foreign Adversaries Trying To Hurt U.S.\">foreign adversaries overseas<\/a>, it\u2019s to spy on American citizens. So <em>of course<\/em> the intelligence community opposes FISA reforms that would make it harder to spy on Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the original justification of Section 702 was \u2014 in the wake of 9\/11, the intelligence community argued that massive government surveillance capabilities were necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks \u2014 the purpose of it now is to enable the FBI to surveil Americans, especially Americans who express views and opinions the government deems to be a threat.<\/p>\n<p>In an earlier era, this warrantless spying would have been understood as a clear violation of Americans\u2019 constitutional rights (specifically our Fourth Amendment rights). But we\u2019re in a new era now, and the intelligence agencies have no qualms about violating our rights without pretending it has anything to do with national security. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ac77f58255b9a41aa87b76e3d2986dc9 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ac77f58255b9a41aa87b76e3d2986dc9\"><\/div>\n<p>They also have no qualms about openly defying efforts to reform their ability to spy on Americans. In a widely circulated <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LizaGoitein\/status\/1778146732435521947\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thread on X<\/a>, Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, detailed the efforts of lawmakers on the right and left to propose reasonable reforms to Section 702, including not just a warrant requirement but also closing the data broker loophole, which allows government agencies to purchase Americans\u2019 data from brokers.<\/p>\n<p>But the intelligence community and the lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee dug in their heels, rejecting multiple compromise reform bills. These bills, wrote Goitein, \u201cwould have passed if IC\/intel committees were willing to concede that Section 702 should not be used as a means of warrantlessly accessing Americans\u2019 communications.\u201d But rather than bring one of these bills to the House floor, Speaker Mike Johnson went with a bill backed by the intelligence agencies \u201cthat masquerades as reform but is carefully designed to preserve the status quo when it comes to backdoor searches.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The reformers were willing to go along with this bill if they could offer amendments to prevent backdoor searches and close the data broker loophole, but Speaker Johnson thwarted attempts to amend the bill, which triggered the Republican defection and killed the bill.<\/p>\n<p>How bad is warrantless spying by our government? Pretty bad. Last April, Inspector General Michael Horowitz <a href=\"https:\/\/oig.justice.gov\/news\/testimony\/statement-michael-e-horowitz-inspector-general-us-department-justice-us-house-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">testified<\/a> that in 2021 (the most recent year for which data is available) U.S. intelligence agencies made more than 3.4 million search queries of the NSA database and that of these, about 30 percent were \u201cnon-compliant searches,\u201d which means they fell outside the normal rules and regulations. In other words, they were illegal. Horowitz also revealed that the number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pentagon-spends-2-years-investigating-former-wh-physician-finds-hes-a-bad-boss-drinks-beer-sleeps-on-planes\/\" title=\"Pentagon Spends 2 Years Investigating Former WH Physician, Finds He\u2019s A Bad Boss, Drinks Beer, Sleeps On Planes\">federal government employees<\/a> who have the ability to conduct these illegal searches is more than 10,000. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6bcf88ea8bb39ed245738af07563503c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6bcf88ea8bb39ed245738af07563503c\"><\/div>\n<p>But that\u2019s not all. As the X account @TheLastRefuge noted, from November 2015 to May 2016, the FBI and contractors for the DOJ\/FBI conducted more than 1,000 illegal searches targeting Republican primary candidates. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"YgbskZDecAdQT0lLNwCXzG3pravo6fmBij42uIFn8Mh5J\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">10) Although the number of the illegal search queries were redacted, we know the number is four digits from the size of the redacted text. More than 1,000 and less than 9,999. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/35iuqKR1Yd\">pic.twitter.com\/35iuqKR1Yd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLastRefuge2\/status\/1778186379341799750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Under these circumstances, it\u2019s entirely reasonable to ask for reforms to Section 702 to ensure that Americans\u2019 Fourth Amendment rights are not violated, or that the intelligence community is not weaponized against democracy itself, as it clearly has been. <\/p>\n<p>But again, don\u2019t expect Speaker Johnson or members of the Intelligence Committee, much less the intelligence community itself, to see it that way. They don\u2019t want to reform Section 702 because they use it to spy on Americans <em>all the time<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>An even more cynical view of all this would be what Darryl Cooper (@MartyrMade) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/martyrmade\/status\/1778224583453376946\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said on X<\/a>: \u201cThe FISA system is not meant to stop the intelligence community from inappropriately spying on us, which they\u2019ll do with or without it. FISA is there to give the intelligence community legal and political cover when they get caught.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time for ordinary Americans to wake up and realize what our government is doing to us. Under the pretext of keeping us safe from foreign terrorists, the intelligence community has erected a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-report-shows-chinas-torture-abuses-against-muslim-minorities-draconian-crimes-against-humanity\/\" title=\"New Report Shows China\u2019s Torture, Abuses Against Muslim Minorities: \u2018Draconian,\u2019 \u2018Crimes Against Humanity\u2019\">vast surveillance apparatus<\/a> that targets American citizens \u2014 and it will not under any circumstances allow that apparatus to be reformed.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why it should be dismantled completely.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2ac4ef6838f8cf3181c492171629ee7d fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2ac4ef6838f8cf3181c492171629ee7d\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, 19 Republican legislators teamed up with Democrats to halt a bill reauthorizing the government&#8217;s surveillance powers, including Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This section, meant for foreign surveillance, often extends to monitoring American individuals without warrants, sparking controversy over privacy rights and government oversight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":2219150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Mike-Johnson-1.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Mike-Johnson-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}